Fans React To Pat McAfee’s Shock WWE Return At The Royal Rumble

Pat McAfee is BACK in the WWE.

Well, for one night only at least.

The ESPN star returned to the WWE commentary desk on Saturday night for the legendary Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

Prior to signing a bajillion dollar deal with ESPN to take the Pat McAfee show to ESPN, the former Colts and West Virginia Mountaineers punter was a full-time broadcaster on WWE’s SmackDown show.

But he hadn’t been on WWE programming for a significant time, since last year’s Royal Rumble, actually, when he made a similar surprise return.

This time around, fans were absolutely stoked to see the charismatic ESPN star back with the pro wrestling giant.

Pat McAfee Return Comes At A Great Time For WWE

McAfee’s surprise return comes at a time when the WWE badly needs some good PR.

Longtime WWE CEO Vince McMahon resigned in shame earlier in the week after gruesome allegations of sexual assault.

“Mr. McMahon repeatedly used sex toys named after other WWE employees, wrestlers, and performers to sexually groom Ms. Grant for trafficking to those same people,” a lawsuit against McMahon, WWE and others claims.

“During this ‘relationship’ Mr. McMahon would shower Ms. Grant with gifts and empty work promotions, while at the same time threatening her livelihood and her reputation if she wouldn’t succumb to his increasingly depraved sexual demands, including disseminating [explicit images] of Ms. Grant to ‘thousands’ of individuals and engaging in sex acts with other WWE employees—some of whom were complete strangers.

“On one such occasion, Mr. McMahon and Mr. Laurinaitis are alleged to have raped Ms. Grant in a WWE conference room, ignoring her protests and saying ‘No means yes’ and ‘take it, b—-.”

But for one night, at least, WWE swung the publicity back in its favor. And they have McAfee to thank for it.